The Doll and Dare

Like sunspots etching meaning
To the weather of our days,
Or rays of sunlight falling
With a shimmer shadow
Through the leaves of meadow trees

Like early winter morning hoarfrost
Clinging to the highest twigs
And branches, melting with the sun.
But staying crisp and crystalized
With the memory and mind.

Like children playing on the bench
Of summer gestures frozen
As we see them with their skirts
And shirts still there suspended
As the wind had left them –

Still as real and still as time
Which passes and as long as time
Shall be – the doll and dare
of childhood dye
The fabric of all later life.

Dennis Smith